GENTRY -- Gentry School District has applied for a waiver of the 178 instructional days requirement of the Arkansas Department of Education and notified the education commissioner of additional missed days last week.
In a letter addressed to Tom Kimbrell, Arkansas Department of Education commissioner, dated March 4, Randy Barrett, superintendent for the Gentry School District, wrote the following update: "I write today to update Gentry's February 21, 2014, request for a waiver of the Arkansas Department Of Education Rules Governing Standards For Accreditation of Arkansas Public Schools and School Districts' Standard 5 Instruction 10.01.1 -- 'Student-teacher interaction time shall be for a minimum of 178 days....'
"As of today's date, the Gentry School District has now missed 17 days of school for inclement weather. Our original school calendar was revised in January 2014 to add an additional five (5) days to the original five days at the end of the calendar designated for the make-up of missed days. This calendar revision also included the use of a previously student non-attendance day in February, Good Friday and Memorial Day as student attendance days. Finally the calendar authorized the use of spring break as make-up days, if necessary.
"Using only the five inclement weather days in the original calendar would have made May 30, 2014, Gentry's last day for student attendance."
General News on 03/12/2014